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Republican voters are still dominant in southwest Reno and in south Reno, but Democrats have almost pulled even countywide, Washoe County registrar figures show.

Republicans lead voter registration in Washoe County with 91,827 registered voters as of March. Democrats have 91,008.

On a map of Washoe County precincts if Republican-majority precincts were colored red and Democrat-majority precincts were colored blue, the red precincts would outnumber the blue precincts.

If precincts where neither party has a majority were colored gray, there would be wide areas of northwest Reno and Sparks into Spanish Springs that would show no preference for either party.

Fred Lokken, a political science professor at Truckee Meadows Community College, said he thinks it shows a county in political transition.

“In a stronghold area like Washoe County for Republicans, this is an amazing map,” Lokken said. “In most parts of the country, this is not divided like this. They are either Democrats or they are Republicans and they do not shift like this.”

Lokken thinks Washoe County is making the transition from being a swing county, which could support either a Democrat or a Republican, to becoming a solidly Democrat county. He thinks it could come as soon as 2016.

“I think we will see more blue in 2014 and again in 2016,” Lokken said.

Tom Taber, newly elected chairman of the Washoe County Republican Party, said he will work to make his party more visible. Voter registration is not the only way to measure the party’s effectiveness, Taber said.

“My particular approach to it is give it between now and next year and see whether or not those things change,” Taber said.

Eric Herzik, chairman of the political science department at the University of Nevada, Reno, said he doesn’t think the data clearly show a trend.

The data confirm the Republicans still have their traditional strength in areas like Caughlin Ranch, Galena and up to Lake Tahoe, Herzik said. There are fewer areas of Democrat strength, and they tend to be in southeast Reno and west Sparks.

“I was struck that these precincts are pretty balanced,” Herzik said. Two decades ago, a red-blue map would have shown much more red, he noted.

“The Democrats have certainly made gains,” he said. “I don’t know that this trend indicates that Washoe, long a Republican-leaning county, will solidly become Democrat.”